Persons afflicted with cataracts in one or both eyes quite often must undergo surgery to remove the cataracts. A few days after such surgery, recovery is sufficient to allow use of the eye operated upon under restricted conditions. Since, however, the lens portion of the eye has been removed during surgery, the eye no longer has its primary focusing member and its focusing capability is only at a minimum compared to the normal eye. Without a lens, excessive light entering the eye becomes scattered which degrades contrast and clarity of vision. Excessive light can also cause damage to the unprotected eye while the eye is healing. Eventually, the patient will wear prescription lenses; but during the period immediately following surgery, the eye is in the process of healing and its focusing capability is undergoing change. Therefore, during this period, it is not feasible to obtain permanent glasses.
Temporary spectacles of various designs have, in the past, been made for the post-operative patient. Such spectacles have been designed in an attempt to permit limited activity of the patient and protection of the eye against damage due to excessive light. These prior constructions have, however, not proved satisfactory.
One type of temporary spectacles includes lenses molded from plastic. These molded lenses are less expensive than permanent glass or plastic lenses but are generally thick and uncomfortably heavy. They also have defects which cause disturbing image distortions and color distortions from chromatic aberrations. Lenses of this type are particularly disturbing when the wearer attempts to change his view from straight ahead to one side or the other where there is no lens at all. The presence of high powered lenses in front and none at the sides, as is the case with conventionally constructed glasses, creates a serious front to side transition. Objects at the side cannot be quickly focused to determine their proximity or direction of movement. For example, moving objects may appear to be at a safe distance when actually close and on a collision course.
Another type of post-operative spectacle presently available includes an opaque plate with a single aperture of about 2.5 mm. diameter. This type of spectacle has very poor acuity and a very narrow field of vision.
It has also been proposed to produce spectacles with an array of apertures of an apaque background but, to my knowledge, none would serve the purposes of this invention. These have been proposed for sufferers of myopia or for other limited purposes not related to lensless eyes. Constructions of this type are, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 564,518 and 1,959,915. They would be unsatisfactory for use by post-operative cataract patients in that they either would not provide adequate imaging, would permit excessive light to enter the lensless eye, would not provide a sufficient field of vision or sufficient light, would require a glass lens as a primary optical device, or would have a combination of these defects.